Joaquin Montes denies bullying, claims self-defense

Joaquin Montes has finally broken his silence on the bullying controversy he was involved in. The teenage taekwondo practitioner, who is a former junior high school student of the Ateneo de Manila University, denied that he did to his fellow students as shown in viral videos was bullying.

“I was just defending myself,” Montes told Arnold Clavio of GMA News. “Hindi naman ako nam-bully (I did not bully) for no reason.”

However, Montes contradicted himself in the same interview, which he did with his mother beside him. After saying that there was a reason why he bullied his victims, he claimed that what he did was not bullying.

“Para sa akin, hindi naman bullying ‘yong ginawa ko (For me, what I did was not bullying) because I was also defending myself naman eh (actually), in a way,” Montes said. “Kaso nga lang (But) in the video, mukhang ako talaga ‘yung mas (I appeared to be the one who was more ) aggressive.”

In the videos that went viral in December 2018 just days before the year-end holiday, Montes is seen physically and verbally attacking other junior high school students of the Ateneo de Manila University. He appears to be very dominant as compared to the victims.

The video that caught the attention of the netizens the most show Montes showcasing his taekwondo skills. He punched and kicked a student who is bigger than him inside the bathroom of the Ateneo de Manila University and the video ends when the latter suffers from a bleeding nose.

According to Montes, the victim intentionally bumped into him prior to the encounter in the bathroom. The victim even challenged Montes into a duel, the latter claimed.

For Montes, it was unfair that the people judged him without knowing what had happened prior to the incidents shown in the viral videos. Still, he acknowledged that what he did was wrong.